Our culture collection contains 26 phylogenetically distinct strains from Lake Laysan, 44 from Lake Kauhako, 7 from Waiau, and 18 from the anchialine pond on Southeast Island in the Pearl and Hermes Atoll. Almost 30% of the ~90 different species have never been described or even isolated before.

This work is the first to describe microbial diversity in each representative of any Hawaiian habitat. Using a biphasic approach encompassing both molecular and cultivation techniques, it is evident that diverse microbial communities occupy the Hawaiian lakes we have tested so far, i.e., Laysan, Kauhako, and Waiau. Conversely, little diversity characterized the uncultured community in the anchialine pool on Pearl and Hermes Atoll. No bacteria occur in all lakes, although Vibrio species and Halothiobacillus trueperii have been isolated from more than one site. There is little agreement between diversity described through clone library construction and cultures isolated using enrichment media. For example, only four of the 27 different isolates from Laysan were represented in the clone library that in turn contained 30 distinct OTUs. Clearly, the amount of diversity determined in a microbial community is affected by the choice of method, a fact rarely if ever discussed in studies using only a single (usually 16S) method approach. A biphasic approach utilizing two independent methods enables one to offer a more complete description of diversity within a community.